


Deliver Me

by anti_ela



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Coda, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, The Prince's Tale, Who hasn't cried about Snape in the middle of the night?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-21 07:56:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19998526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anti_ela/pseuds/anti_ela
Summary: After Snape learns what must be done.-----"Very well," Severus said. "I have one request."





	Deliver Me

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from "Who Shall Deliver Me?" by Christina Rossetti.

"Very well," Severus said. "I have one request."

Albus leaned back in his chair. "Oh?"

"Once I communicate your message to Potter, your bird must not come for me," Severus said.

"Severus," Albus said, studying the young man before him, "surely you must want to live in the world you have saved?"

Severus's eyes were flat and black as he asked, "Why?"

The delicate silver machines twirled; the portraits pretended to sleep. Fawkes sat on his perch, head tucked in his wing. The nerves in Albus's arm said _wrong wrong something's wrong_ while the nerves in his hand said nothing. Beyond, gargoyles crouched, house-elves worked, ghosts drifted, students dreamed. Argus was likely prowling the halls; Rubeus and Fang would wake soon. In the village below, his brother was closing shop; in another village, Lily Potter's bones crumbled further. And in a tower far, far away, in a castle entirely unlike his own, another skeleton lived, doing nothing, seeing no one, waiting.

Albus said, "As you wish, Severus," and cursed himself.


End file.
